welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: rayshard brooks shot in the back as he fled police in atlanta, georgia. the officer who killed him is charged with murder and ten other offences. the possible sentences for a felony murder conviction would be life, life without parole, or the death penalty. as coronavirus cases rise again in china, we visit the wet markets blamed by some as the original source, and consider the latest theories. in exclusive analysis, we disclose the real global death toll from coronavirus. a bombshell allegation from john bolton. he claims president trump asked china's leader to help him win re—election.

and a leading theatre producer warns that some of the biggest productions won't reopen in london's west end this year. a former police officer in the us state of georgia has been charged with murdering rayshard brooks, the african—american man shot twice in the back as he fled two white officers in atlanta. garrett rolfe, who was sacked from the force shortly after the killing, could face the death penalty if found guilty. he also faces ten other charges. this report from our north america correspondent nick bryant. it started out as a routine call — an african—american reported asleep in his vehicle in the car park of a fast food restaurant in atlanta, georgia. step out with me, please?

yes, sir. rayshard brooks was asked by police to take a sobriety test. then he suggested he walk to his sister's home nearby. i canjust go home. i have my daughters there right now. my three — my daughter's birthday was yesterday. alright, mr brooks. blow, blow, blow, blow, blow... but, after he failed a breath test, the police decided to take him into custody. that is when a fight broke out in which he seized and fired one of the officers‘ tasers. stop fighting, stop fighting! you're going to get tased, you're going to get tased! during a brief chase, he pointed the taser at the officer, who responded by fatally shooting him in the back. tonight, prosecutors revealed shocking new details that garrett rolfe, the officer who killed rayshard brooks, had kicked him on the floor afterwards, and the other officer, devon brosnan, stood on his shoulders. neither offered any medical help for two minutes. in announcing a felony murder

charge against officer rolfe, georgia's attorney—general showed a photograph of that kick, and stressed rayshard brooks did not pose a serious threat that justified the use of lethal force. the demeanour of the officers immediately after the shooting did not reflect any fear or danger of mr brooks, but their actions really reflected other kinds of emotions. faced with such massive and multiracial black lives matter protests, prosecutors are moving more swiftly to bring charges. what makes this case so especially alarming is that, even at a time of heightened racial tensions, a white police officer thought he could shoot an african—american in the back and then kick him on the ground afterwards. it will increase the already urgent demands for a major overhaul of american policing. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. tomika miller, widow of rayshard brooks, has been

speaking about how she felt hearing details of what happened to her husband. i was very hurt. i didn't imagine being there, ‘cause i don't know what i would have done if i had have seen that for myself. but i felt everything that he felt, just by hearing what he went through. and it hurt — it hurt really bad. stephannie stokes is an atlanta reporter with wabe news, the city's national public radio station. good to talk to you. i am sure you are very busy indeed. quite a few question marks about this case. what is the feeling after the press conference about how it is being handled? well, i think it depends who you talk to. i think that we are seeing from the family and the attorney gratefulness that the district attorney has responded so district attorney has responded so quickly. right, we are

talking about just five so quickly. right, we are talking aboutjust five days after the shooting of rayshard brooks. that is extremely quick, i think in any american city, but especially in the city, but especially in the city of atlanta. and we are also seeing protesters, i think, celebrate the charges, but they are saying that this is not a conviction, and we have to keep pushing. and the da does, i think, at the moment have several police shootings sitting with his office for consideration. what do you make of this apparent contradiction about whether the other officer is to be a witness for the state 7 is to be a witness for the state? right, so this was one thing that district attorney howard really emphasised throughout his whole press conference, was that he had the second officer at the scene, that he was going to be a witness in this case, and how significant it was, to have a police officer speaking against his department. and then we found out just moments his department. and then we found outjust moments after the press conference that in

fa ct the press conference that in fact this officer, his attorney, devin brosnan‘s attorney, devin brosnan‘s attorney says that he will not bea attorney says that he will not be a witness —— devon brosnan. that means that at this very significant time when a police officer, the first time that the district attorney said he had ever seen that in atlanta, that that might not actually be happening after all. stephanie, tell us more about the feeling in atla nta tell us more about the feeling in atlanta at the moment. it is a lwa ys in atlanta at the moment. it is always a complicated dynamic, isn't it, between the police force, the police union, the police chief, the mayor, the da, but atlanta has a very diverse police force, a majority black police force, doesn't it? yes, it is very different from other cities. atla nta different from other cities. atlanta as a city is majority black, so the fact that the police department is majority black is matching that demographic. the mayor has said that morale among the police force is quite low. we're talking about several weeks

into protest, not just talking about several weeks into protest, notjust in atla nta into protest, notjust in atlanta but around the country, that they have been working overtime shifts to control crowds and respond to protesters. so i have heard that morale is low, and we are hearing now from the atlanta police department that they are experiencing an unusual number of walkout, call—outs, i am sorry, people calling in and saying they can't make it to work. so we're still trying to figure out what the motive is behind those callouts. thank you so much. thank you. worldwide new cases of coronavirus are growing sharply, despite the recent falls in the uk and other european countries. so far, nearly 500,000 deaths have been officially recorded around the world, but experts believe the reality is far worse. it was widely reported that the virus had originated in a market where a range of live animals are sold for human consumption. but rational debate about the virus has been made more difficult by a propaganda war between the us and china, with both countries accusing each other of being the source.

0ur correspondentjohn sudworth looks at the latest origin theories, and what is next for the authorities in beijing. wuhan — ground zero. a city of 11 million people, through the streets of which an unseen, silent killer took its first steps late last year, and where the cemeteries hold the first to fall victim to its deadly effects. but, six months on, the origin of this virus is still unclear. most scientists believe china's wet markets should be the focus. the virus, known to come initially from bats, was likely passed to humans, they say, via another species. do people in wuhan eat wildlife? "we don't have customs like that", he says. across town though, this market, connected to some of the first virus

cases, has been closed. wild animals were traded here, but the testing of samples has now ruled it out as the source. but there is another theory. for more than a decade, wuhan has been at the forefront of a major project to collect bat viruses from remote chinese caves. as a result, there are few buildings in the world surrounded by as much controversy as this one right now, at the centre of the us president's accusation that the virus leaked from a lab. inside, researchers have been studying coronaviruses, and sometimes genetically altering them, to better understand, they say, how pandemics might arise. well, the lab leak theory is dismissed by the chinese government and by some scientists as an outlandish conspiracy.

we are told to stop filming. 0n state tv, the lab has dismissed the allegations of a leak. translation: this is pure fabrication. we first received the sample on 30 december. before that, we didn't even know it existed. how could it have leaked from our lab, when we never had it? scientists have looked at the structure of the virus itself, in particular its protein spikes, which are unusually good for a coronavirus of this type at binding to human cells. this analysis by five experts in the field finds that it was not purposefully manipulated. we do not believe that any type of laboratory—based scenario is plausible, it says, a conclusion now widely accepted. to deny a possibility, when a scientist should always keep an open mind... but some scientists say

it is flawed, and based in part on accepting the labs denials. one of those possibilities has to be that this came out ofa lab. you know, it's a possibility. we can't say it's not. and for my colleagues to say it's not, i'm a bit astounded, because you can't say a negative, and certainly no—one's proved a negative here. china has been developing an origin theory of its own, with state media and officials suggesting it may have come from elsewhere. it is an idea gaining traction in wuhan. "it came from the us", this man says. "they've tested the sequences. the us had it first." liu 0uqing, a former communist party official, died of coronavirus injanuary. 0n the banks of wuhan‘s east lake, i meet his son, liu pei'en. he is angry at china's handling of the outbreak,

but says calls for an international inquiry offer little hope. translation: if china or the us investigate, the final result will come from a group of politicians. it will be a report infected by politics. the origin of the virus is now meaningless to me. with wu han‘s lockdown receding into memory, the limits of science and the demands of politics may mean the biggest question is never answered — where did the virus come from? john sudworth, bbc news, wuhan. official figures show more than 400,000 people have died because of coronavirus, but what is the real number? how many people died because they couldn't get treatment for other illnesses? a bbc investigation has looked at 27 different countries and has found that the total number of deaths caused by the virus, both directly and indirectly, is much higher than has been reported.

this report by sofia bettiza in indonesia. a father buries his youngest son, a mother distraught. three—year—old rafa did not have coronavirus, but his parents say he died because of it. he had leukaemia. when his condition got worse, his parents raced to hospital. translation: it was around midnight. the hospital said he would need to be tested for covid—i9 before he could be admitted anywhere. another hospital told us there wasn't a children's doctor on duty, and the quick covid tests they had were only being used for pregnant women. rafa's parents drove him to three more hospitals that night, with no success. the next day, they eventually found a hospital that

would accept him, but he died before doctors could see him. translation: i still believe that, if my son was given prompt treatment, he would still be alive, but he was turned away and tossed from one hospital to another. i could do nothing. rafa is one of tens of thousands of people whose deaths are not officially counted as being caused by coronavirus, but are still victims of this pandemic. since the outbreak of the virus, lots of countries are recording more deaths than usual. you can see a bump in the graph here. these are called excess deaths. now, many of these have officially been linked to coronavirus, as you can see here in red, but that still leaves a huge number of lives lost which are not accounted for in

the covid statistics. the italian region of lombardy saw more than double the number of deaths than expected. one of them was luca's mother. luciana had pancreatic cancer. when she tested positive for covid—i9, her chemotherapy was stopped immediately. but, when she got better, her treatment was never resumed. translation: yes, i believe so, because her doctors said everything was under control, as the cancer hadn't spread to her liver. my mum was optimistic. we made plans for the future. but the virus accelerated her death. she could have been with me for many more months, or even years.

in brazil, a similar story of grief. translation: my mother was a warrior who fought for her children all her life. andreia says that after her mum had a stroke, the hospital discharged her too soon, because they needed to free up beds for covid patients. a few days after she came back home, her heart suddenly stopped beating. translation: my sister tried to beat her chest, but it didn't work. at the hospital, she would have been revived. she did not die from the disease, but she died because of the disease. and so many other people are dying in brazil, and in the world, that they are not counting. it's scary, it's scary. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a warning from a leading theatre producer that some of the biggest productions won't reopen

in london's west end this year. there was a bomb in the city centre. a code word known to be one used by the ira was given. army bomb experts were examining a suspect van when there was a huge explosion. the south african parliament has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act, which for 40 years, forcibly classified each citizen according to race. just a day old, and the royal baby is tonight sleeping in his cot at home. early this evening, the new prince was taken by his mother and father to their apartments in kensington palace. germany's parliament, the bundestag, has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat of government from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into the night, but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. the real focus of attention

today was valentina tereshkova, the world's first woman cosmonaut. what do you think of the russian woman in space? i think it's a wonderful achievement and i think we might be able to persuade the wife it would be a good idea if i could to get her to go up there for a little while. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: a white police officer who fatally shot african—american man in the state of georgia has been charged with murder. as a new outbreak sweeps through beijing. china's capital is being placed under another lockdown. several thousand people in north—west germany have been ordered into quarantine after a coronavirus outbreak at a large abattoir. more than 650 workers have tested positive. authorities have also ordered local schools and nurseries to shut down again. our reporter freya colejoins me. tell us what first of all about

the german situation. it is a facility in gutersloh, in the north—west of the country and it is not coronavirus linked to an abattoir. tonnies group have been carrying out routine testing and 650 workers returned a positive result. thousands more are waiting to be tested or are awaiting the results so that number could indeed grow higher. a spokesperson for tonnies has apologised for the incident and local authorities have decided, asa local authorities have decided, as a precaution, to close local schools and kindergartens until at least the end of this month. the right common factors with slaughterhouses globally? that's right. at least four other abattoirs across germany have had clusters of covid—i9,

right across the us, europe, australia, the uk, they have clusters to meet processing facilities. it has shown a light on working conditions. western abattoirs, abattoirs in western countries rather use cheap labour. workers from eastern europe, romania for example and they are also temporary workers on temporary visas and they may not have access to healthcare. there may be stay in accommodations which in the past have been proven to be overcrowded. it has shown a light on that problem. brazil is another country with a serious outbreaks in its abattoirs. because it is near impossible to state i— abattoirs. because it is near impossible to state 1— two metres away from your colleagues, abattoirs have

become like an incubator for covid—i9. become like an incubator for covid-19. a lot of people very close together, a lot of overtime, very difficult. what kind of lessons we learning for workplace safety generally? in the us, there is a set of guidelines inside factories. temperature concerns, temperature checks at the gates, socially distancing, wearing a mask that is near impossible in so many scenarios so impossible in so many scenarios so what is happening in germany now really does paint a wider picture of the complications opening up large factories when this virus is still such a big thread. unions around the world have suggested downsizing these large factories, making factories smaller and indeed slowing down the slaughter line so slowing down the slaughter line so stuff have a chance to space out. no doubt there is a profit

issue. thank you very much indeed. donald trump tried to get china's leader xi jinping to help him secure re—election, according to the president's former national security adviserjohn bolton, in a new book. john bolton says mr trump "pleaded" with the chinese leader to buy more agricultural produce from american farmers. the trump administration is trying to prevent publication of the book, saying it contains "classified information" which will threaten national security. the bbc‘s anthony zurcher has more. some of the stuff about china is particularly relevant. donald trump hoping that china would buy agricultural battle products from battle states shows that this was in his mind during these trade negotiations with president xijinping. he also said he didn't care that much about china having labourcamps for uighurs and that was, he wasn't gonna pressure china on human rights. it also confirmed the allegations that democrats made that donald trump was conditioning

us military aid to ukraine on ukraine providing damaging information about democratic rivaljoe biden. all of this paints a picture of a president willing to bend foreign policy to personal and domestic political goals, which is something that democrats have been alleging since the beginning of those impeachment proceedings last year. one of the world's most successful figures in theatre, sir cameron mackintosh, the producer behind les miserables, mary poppins and hamilton, has said his productions will not return to the london west end this year. sir cameron said the decision was taken because of uncertainty about when the government would withdraw social distancing measures. our arts correspondent david sillito considers this what this means for theatres across the uk. # i love him but when the night is over...# the lockdown may be lifting in some areas, but theatres are staying closed. so, too, the pubs and restaurants that depend on them. theatreland is a ghost town and tough decisions are being made. les miserables, mary poppins,

hamilton, phantom of the opera — cameron mackintosh is the biggest name in british theatre, and he is considering laying off all his employees. and you can be certain that others will follow. the issue — thejob retention scheme that's kept these venues afloat is due to end in october, and the theatres will still be closed. what happens between the moment it winds down or disappears and the moment that we can perform with revenue? and that is not possible while social distancing is in place. we don't think that will be possible until spring next year, very possibly. it will be a while before we see this again live. tamara rojo is part of the creative industries federation, which is today warning that 400,000 jobs in the cultural and creative sector are at risk. and some of the most vulnerable are here, the smaller venues in places like east anglia. if social distancing remains in place and we're not able to,

as a collective of venues, regain our full—scale operation, 50% of those venues currently say they will have to close permanently beyond april the 1st. and at the sharp end are people like anna. everything has stopped. we can't plan. we are just sitting tight. and there's something about the solidarity of us all being in it together which means that perhaps we're not panicking in quite the way that we should. yeah. theatreland — it's only a part of our creative economy but it's a vital part, and it's going dark. david sillito, bbc news. more on that and all the news nationally and internationally on the bbc website and you can reach me and most of the team

on twitter. thank you for watching. hello there. it's been a very thundery week so far across the country, thanks to the warmth and the humidity. and the next few days also looks like we'll see more downpours. now, wednesday we saw some pretty intense thunderstorms across parts of england. this lightning strike was captured on one of our weather watchers in leicestershire there. we also had some slow—moving downpours which gave rise to lots of rainfall fall in a short space of time, giving rise to some surface water flooding. some subtle changes to thursday morning. we've got an area of more persistent rain which has been moving out to the near continent, and will push in to the midlands and south—east england to start thursday morning. it will be a muggy start for most, and we'll have further low cloud, mist and murk across some north sea coasts. now, as we move through the course of today,

it looks like that area of rain, some heavy bursts in it, will tend to move its way into northwards, into northern england, parts of wales. much of scotland and northern ireland should see a fine day with some sunshine, bar the odd heavy shower towards the south. but its southern wales and into central and southern england into the afternoon where we could see these further slow—moving, thundery downpours developing. these could be really heavy again, give rise to some flash flooding, and a lot of rainfall in a short space of time. now, it's going to be another warm and muggy day for most. temperatures reaching highs of 21 or 22 degrees, but always cooler along some north sea coasts. so these thunderstorms across the south of the country through the afternoon could cause some issues. stay tuned to your local radio, and to the latest weather forecast. as we move through thursday night, it looks like the thunderstorms will ease across the south. that rain will push its way westwards to parts of scotland and northern ireland by the end of the night, and we'll have quite a bit of low cloud, mist and murk across the northern and eastern areas, so another muggy night to come. friday, quite a messy picture.

looks like we'll start off with that rain across the west, a lot of cloud around, but sunshine will break through into the afternoon. that will spark off some heavy, thundery downpours. this time central northern and eastern areas perhaps look more favoured. again, it's going to be another warm and muggy day for most. then we see some big changes into the weekend. we lose the humidity and the thunderstorms into the continent, and this area of low pressure will sweep in to bring stronger winds across the board, also a band of rain which will move through saturday night into sunday. so windier, fresher conditions this weekend, with some rain at times. there'll also be some sunshine too.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a former police officer in the us state of georgia has been charged with murdering rayshard brooks, the african—american man shot twice in the back as he fled two white officers in atlanta. garrett rolfe has been sacked from the force. he faces ten other charges. after nearly two months with no coronavirus infections, the chinese capital is under another lockdown. restrictions on movements have been reintroduced in beijing to try to contain a new outbreak which emerged a week ago. in a new book, donald trump's former national security adviser claims the president tried to get china's leader to help secure his re—election. john bolton also claims mr trump told xi jinping it was the right thing to do for china to detain about a million uighur muslims and other minorities in camps in xinjiang for punishment and indoctrination. the white house is trying to stop publication of the book.